ix, 231 pages ; 24 cm

"In this volume Georges Duby - member of the Academie Francaise and one of the preeminent medieval scholars of our time - addresses the theme of love and marriage in the Middle Ages." "These essays enrich Duby's position as the virtual progenitor and unequalled master of medieval social history. Rather than charting the evolution of love as a mere history of feelings, passions, and mentalities independent of or isolated from the history of other components of social education, Duby places this evolution in the material context of social relationships and daily life. Examining the poetry and practice of courtly love and the mores of aristocratic marriages, Duby shows the Middle Ages to be male-dominated. Women were regarded as symbols, as figures of temptation who paradoxically had no desires of their own. Duby argues that the structure of sexual relationships took its cue from the family and from feudalism - both bastions of masculinity." "Duby also reflects on general issues in the writing of cultural history, on the history of pain and heresy, and gives a personal view of the state of historical research in France over recent generations. He argues that the rapid growth of interest in the history of marriage and the family reflects contemporary disquiet stemming from crises in the familiar structures of late twentieth-century society." "Beautifully written in Duby's characteristically nuanced and powerful style, this collection is the ideal entree into Duby's thinking about marriage and the diversities of love, spousal decorum, family structure, and their cultural context in bodily and spiritual values. It will be of great interest to students in social and cultural history, in medieval and early modern history, and in women's studies. It will also appeal to a broader audience interested in the nature of social life in the Middle Ages."--Jacket

Translation of: Mâle Moyen Age

Reprints of essays originally published 1967-1986

Includes bibliographical references (pages 215-221) and index

1. Marriage in Early Medieval Society -- 2. What do we Know about Love in Twelfth-Century France? -- 3. The Matron and the Mismarried Woman -- 4. On Courtly Love -- 5. Le Roman de la Rose -- 6. Towards a History of Women in France and Spain -- 7. Family Structures in the West during the Middle Ages -- 8. The Relationship between Aristocratic Family and State Structures in Eleventh-Century France -- 9. Philip Augustus's France: Social Changes in Aristocratic Circles -- 10. Problems and Methods in Cultural History -- 11. The History of Value Systems -- 12. The Renaissance of the Twelfth Century: Audience and Patronage -- 13. Observations on Physical Pain in the Middle Ages -- 14. Memories without Historians -- 15. Heresies and Societies in Preindustrial Europe between the Eleventh and Eighteenth Centuries -- 16. Trends in Historical Research in France, 1950-1980

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